Church Blog

How Loud is Too Loud?

This blog post was written by Dave Wilcox, Covenant Life’s Technical Director, in response to a question that was submitted to the pastors at our Members Meeting on November 14, 2010.

As Covenant Life’s Technical Director, I have the responsibility to help the pastors decide how loud the music should be for different events. Joshua Harris has asked me to give a brief explanation of our current understanding of safe sound levels and how we set the volume levels in our services.

First, your pastors and sound crew take hearing safety very seriously. Not only that, we want singing to be a joy for the church. We don’t want people thinking about the volume levels of the music instead of the songs they are singing and the God they are singing to.

To that end, I want to try to briefly answer three common questions related to the volume of our music:

1. Is anyone at risk of hearing loss from attending our services?
2. Who decides how loud the music is and how do they make that decision?
3. What should I do if I find the music uncomfortable?

Is anyone at risk of hearing loss from attending our services?

Several government agencies have published research and recommendations on hearing safety. The most conservative group is the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). They have put together a formula to determine the safety of volume levels. You can learn more about their standards here.

The NIOSH formula is based on a “daily dose” of noise and—after crunching all the numbers—gives back a percentage. Basically, each time a person hears loud sound, his percentage increases. Once he reaches 100%, he has used up his daily dose of noise, and any more loud sound will likely lead to some permanent hearing loss.

We have measured the levels in our services and plugged these numbers into the formula. The greatest we’ve registered was 13% for a single service. Most services are between 9% and 11%. For people who serve through the band rehearsal and both services, they may take in up to 30-35% of their daily dose.

In short, even those who are in the auditorium all morning long are far from experiencing any hearing loss.

Some people have asked about their children, especially infants. Are they different in any way physiologically than adults, so that they would be harmed by sound levels that would be acceptable for adults?

Thorough research about this specific topic is almost nonexistent, but we have spoken to a pediatric audiologist to answer these questions. She explained that, while children do hear better than adults, the levels for permanent hearing loss are the same for adults and children. We then told her about our current practices and sound levels, and she had absolutely no concerns for our children.

In short, we are confident that our sound levels are safe for everyone who attends.

Who decides how loud the music is, and how do they make that decision?

While the person at the sound board does set the volume level at any given moment, the pastor responsible for each event is the one who decides the overall volume targets, as long as they meet the safety requirements above.

For Sundays, Josh, Grant, and I have set some general goals that have helped us determine what the most appropriate volume level is:

• We want the levels to be loud enough that you can follow the worship leader, even if you are singing loudly.
• We want the levels to moderate enough that you can hear others around you singing.
• We want what you hear to faithfully represent what the band is playing, both in the mix of instruments and voices and in the style of the music.
• We want the music to be present, meaning that it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from far away, so that it is engaging you and drawing you into the singing.

Different pastors may have slightly different goals for their events. If you have questions about sound levels for a particular event, please check in with the pastor leading that event.

What should I do if I find the music uncomfortable?

Some people, for various reasons, may have a level of physical discomfort because of our sound volumes, even though they are well within safe ranges. For those of you in that situation, I want to mention two things that may help you:

• If you find the sub-bass frequencies too strong for your liking, I’d recommend moving back in the room. The subwoofers are located in the stairs in front of the stage, so the low frequencies are a bit stronger up front than in the back.
• If you find that the overall sound causes discomfort, we do have earplugs available at the welcome center that will cut the volume levels down for you significantly.

Music and the Multi-Generational Church

In conclusion, I’d like to take a brief personal tangent. My wife’s grandfather passed away earlier this year in his 80s. In spite of his age, he loved this church and thrived spiritually in the three years he was here. His great-granddaughter, my four-year-old girl, also loves this church and looks forward to going each week to Discovery Land. For a short time, our family had four generations meeting God together at this church. What a blessing it has been to us to have a multi-generational church!

That blessing would not have been ours apart from the grace of God in you, Covenant Life Church. Many of you have set aside your personal preferences in many areas, including music and sound levels, in order to see the advancement of the gospel through the next generation. Thank you for embodying Philippians 2:3, in humility counting others more significant than yourselves.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact your pastor, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) directly, or call me at the church office.